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January 28th

Cody and Megan Smith of Port Orchard, Wash., announce the arrival of a son, Nathan John Smith, born Jan. 15, 2015, at Naval Hospital Bremerton, Wash. Nathan weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19 inches in length at birth. He joins a brother, Noah. Grandparents are Frank and Lori Kaczmarek of Silver Lake and David and Janel Smith of Surgoinsville, Tenn. Great-grandparents are Bob and Val Shamla of Silver Lake and John and Carolyn Chenowith of Surgoinsville, Tenn.

Louis Iocona of Glencoe was named to the fall semester dean’s list at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. To be named to the list, a student must achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale. He is the son of Lou and Claire Iocona.

The proposed ordinance to add occupancy regulations to the zoning code in Silver Lake prompted a discussion of many questions and very few answers.
The City Council reviewed the proposed ordinance at its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20. City Clerk Kerry Venier presented the Council the ordinance, drawn up by City Attorney Jody Winters, which is similar to the ordinance in effect in Lester Prairie.

The Silver Lake City Council voted to adopt a revised compensation plan on Tuesday, Jan. 20. This decision came after long discussion of the city’s current noncompliance of the Equal Pay Act.
When first approached regarding the city’s noncompliance with the Federal Equal Pay Act on Dec. 15, City Clerk-Treasurer Kerry Venier supplied numbers that reflected the inequality in pay for the city’s two female employees.
The Federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 states that:

The committee reports brought to the Silver Lake City Council meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 20, provided insight, ideas and clarity on many fronts. Reports came from the public works, public safety and community development committees.
In the public works report, the committee expressed its support of the “preventative frozen water supply ordinance.”

New, more accurate information was brought to light in the ongoing discussion of a possible public cable access channel coming to Silver Lake.
Duane Wawrzyniak, a citizen in support of the proposal, discussed in detail the potential channel, which has been up to now housed in Lester Prairie.

In the past, the city of Silver Lake has paid for water running on a private service line to avoid frozen pipes in residences, but a new policy states that the city will only pay if the resident has been asked by the water department to run the water.
The Silver Lake City Council examined the new policy at its Jan. 20 meeting. The policy states that the city is responsible for frozen water and sewer mains, but that residents are responsible for laterals and sewer lines from the house to the main.

A couple of items came across the editorial desk this week that should catch the attention of those interested in school levy referendums — which ought to be each one of us.
Randall Thalmann, a rural Plato farmer and former Glencoe School Board member, dropped off a guest column outlining the reasons many farmers are asking the state to tax only a farm’s home and one acre of land for school building bond funding. Thalmann told us that while the proposal has been circulating quite awhile, the “why” behind it has not been adequately explained.

By Randall Thalmann
Plato
Goals of proposal
• Every year, every student should have an equal opportunity for 21st-century education. If we continue to build a good education system, statewide prosperity will follow.
• The state of Minnesota needs to match all local facility levies with annual adjusted pupil facility funding to assist home residence tax levies.

To the Editor:
The McLeod County commissioners’ decision on Jan. 6 to vote Paul Wright as chair, and not consider Ron Shimanski’s nomination and qualifications for chair, or vice chair, is quite disturbing.
The nomination of Shimanski for chair or vice chair was overlooked and voted down by Joe Nagel, Paul Wright and Sheldon Nies. Nies indicated that Wright’s qualifications and experience were necessary with new board members and everything that is going on. Nies then nominated Wright for chair.